Chapter 3

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Capacitors
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Engr. Ahmad Bilal

Assistant Professor
University of Lahore
Ahmad.bilal@dce.uol.edu.pk
 Capacitor
A capacitor can be assumed as battery that can supply power to

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circuit for some instant .

Battery is capable of generating new electrons form some chemical

process s, how ever capacitor can only store electrons and than can
use them later for a small amount of time
Generally a capacitor is made up of two conducting plates serrated

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by some dielectric .

Dielectric is normally a non conducting material and is made up of

normally glass air plastic or any other non-conducting material.

Dielectric dictates what kind of capacitor it is and for what it is

best suited. Depending on the size and type of dielectric, some
capacitors are better for high frequency uses, while some are
better for high voltage applications.
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Symbol
Current and Voltage across Capacitor

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Working of Capacitor

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The plate on the capacitor
that attaches to the
negative terminal of the
battery
acceptselectronsthat the
battery is producing.
The plate on the capacitor
that attaches to the positive
terminal of the battery loses
electrons to the battery.
Hence gaining positive
charge on it
Charging of A Capcitor

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Capacitors in Nature

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 Capacitance :

Capacitance is the ability of a capacitor to store a charge. It is the

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ratio of charge stored by a capacitor to the voltage across it.

C= Q/V (Farad)
 Farad

A capacitor's storage potential, or capacitance, is measured in units

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calledfarads. A 1-farad capacitor can store one coulomb of charge
at 1 volt. A 1-farad capacitor would typically be pretty big. It
might be as big as a 1-liter soda bottle.
 Example

Calculate the capacitance of a capacitor if it is connected to voltage

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source of 12 V and stores 24 C charge
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What is the voltage across Capacitor , when 16 C is stored on it

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 Stray Capacitance

It is also called parasitic capacitance and it is unwanted

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capacitance that exist between different parts (wire) and other
components of a wire .

At higher frequency it becomes a very critical issues , specially

while designing PCB for high frequency response
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Measuring A capacitor

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 Power in a Capacitor

Capacitor is a charge storing device, The power across a resistor is

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given by
Now the capacitor can both supply and absorb voltage . so it means
it can have both positive and negative values of Power . So the
Power across capacitor can be some thing like a wave shown below

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Now the question is , if the capacitor cam have both positive and
negative power, how it is defined as a passive element
 E ne rg y i n a Ca pa cit or

For this question we need to look at capacitor

energy. We know integral of power with respect to
time
is energy

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The voltage in the formula has a square sign on it, which means ,

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even if the voltage of value is negative , the square in the formula
will convert it in to positive , which will yield positive energy, which
shows that energy is being absorbed.

Hence capacitor is a passive device

Determining Energy

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and Power across
Capacitor .
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For the above given capacitor , sketch power and energy graph.
Step 1 : Finding Current

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Or

I(t)= c x slope
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Summarizing
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Sketching power
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Sketching Power
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Sketching Energy

Capacitor and MIC

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We know that capacitance of
a capacitor depends upon
the area between the
distance of two plates

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Now lets suppose that we have a similar capacitor structure, where

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the upper plate is made up a of a small sensitive membrane, which
vibrates , as per the pressure of sound waves
Capacitor as Touch Screen

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